Various technologies make it possible to establish a connection from one network to another, for example for the purpose of controlling an entity of a remote network from a local network. For example, VPN (Virtual Private Network) secure tunnels. Another commonly used solution consists in calling upon an IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) architecture.
In the field of domestic networks, the UPnP protocol is emerging as a standard for the sharing, broadcasting and monitoring of digital contents. Today, various appliances complying with the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) standard are spreading throughout homes, and in particular in the field of multimedia with Media Servers (called for example PVConnect, Windows Media Player 11, etc.), Media Renderers (STB, DMA audio, IP-Radio, etc.), and Media Players (games consoles, digital photo frames, etc.). However, the appliances of a UPnP network are not designed to communicate with an appliance of another UPnP network. Indeed, the UPnP entity discovery mechanism sends a command in “multicast” mode which only makes it possible to discover entities present in a local network.
The existing VPN tunnel or IMS architecture based solutions are for their part relatively unwieldy and complex to implement. Furthermore, with VPN tunnel based solutions, address conflict problems arise. IMS architectures are not necessarily made freely available to users belonging to the general public.
It is thus apparent that there is a requirement for a simple solution for connecting two networks, allowing the control of an entity of a remote network from a local network and which is applicable for placing a UPnP appliance of one network in communication with an appliance of another UPnP network.